


Upfront down

by LiveOakWithMoss



Series: Punching out my dancelines [36]
Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, DWMP verse, Discussion of sexual experience, Ecthelion always carries a pocketknife, Glorfindel is good at many things, M/M, even when naked, repairing broken AC units is not one of them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2016-07-31
Packaged: 2018-07-28 12:41:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7640569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiveOakWithMoss/pseuds/LiveOakWithMoss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An indulgent day on leave leads to some conversations and revelations.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Upfront down

**Author's Note:**

> 0\. Title is a malapropism borne of many years mishearing the phrase ‘don’t know up from down’.

“How do you like it?”

“Sorry?” Glorfindel smiled in amiable confusion. “How do I like what?”

It was Ecthelion’s turn to look confused, as if he had been quite sure his question followed logically on his actions. He moved his hand from Glorfindel’s hip to his waist. “I mean do you prefer… a certain position?”

“Position?”

“Top or bottom?” murmured Ecthelion, and there was a faint blush on his high cheekbones. “Do you have a preference for being on the….giving or receiving end…? Or maybe you’d rather do, um, manual or oral – ”

“ _Oh_.” Glorfindel caught up and broke into a laugh. “Sorry, I should have figured that one out from contextual clues. Like our rapidly diminishing clothes and, ah, your hand placement.” He shook his head in self-recrimination, a strand of hair falling into his eyes. “You’re asking me about my sexual preferences. With regards to sex. Sex faves.”

“Well, yes, if you want to put it that way,” said Ecthelion, who was even redder than before. “I’m sorry, I thought we were progressing in that direction.”

“Probably,” said Glorfindel cheerfully, “but I’m a little slow on the uptake and also,” he gave Ecthelion a lopsided smile, “I cannot speak confidently on my preferred sex practices, not, as it turns out, having ever had sex.”

A look of dawning comprehension passed over Ecthelion’s face, and then he looked mortified. “I’m so sorry to be presumptuous! I shouldn’t have assumed, I just thought – it’s not a problem at all – You really haven’t?”

“Nope,” said Glorfindel. “Not even slightly. Well, except for that attempted blowjob you gave me that had such disastrous results.”

“I wouldn’t call it disastrous,” said Ecthelion, fiddling with Glorfindel’s belt buckle. “Slightly uncoordinated…”

“You ended up with a black eye, Thel,” said Glorfindel tenderly. “You’re allowed to call it a disaster.”

“It faded really quickly! And it was my fault for surprising you and making you jump like that. I’m sorry, clearly I keep making assumptions and moving too fast…” Ecthelion looked furious with himself. “What an asshole I am.”

Glorfindel laughed and cupped Ecthelion’s face in his hands. “Oh, dude. You need to remember how very, very low my asshole bar is. So to speak. I hang out with _rugby players_. You are a former Eagle Scout – ”

“Technically I’m still an Eagle Scout.”

“ – and a Marine whom I’ve literally seen help little old ladies across the street. You are honestly one of the least assholish people I’ve ever met. I mean, okay, you can sometimes be a bit terse at times, but I know you weren’t trying to do anything sleazy. It’s reasonable to assume I’d had sex.” Glorfindel winked. “I know I look hot enough to keep a dozen lovers happy.”

Ecthelion tucked the strand of hair behind Glorfindel’s ear with a look in his eyes that more than confirmed his agreement with Glorfindel’s assessment of his looks. “I appreciate you giving me the benefit of the doubt on the sleaziness,” he said. He gave Glorfindel a searching look, his hand still curved behind Glorfindel’s ear. “You’re uncomfortable about something, though.”

“Who, me?”

“You do this thing where you get more and more ‘chill’ the more you don’t want anyone to know you’re anxious.” Ecthelion shrugged. “It’s like you feel you need to compensate for being uncomfortable by acting totally at ease. It’s not a criticism,” he added hastily. “Just an observation.”

There was a silence in which Ecthelion started to look concerned that he’d spoken out of line, but then Glorfindel was laughing.

“Wow.” He eyed Ecthelion, ruefully impressed. “They teach you how to observe like that in Eagle Scouts?”

“No, but I have had the benefit of having observed you since high school.”

“Oh yeah, sometimes I forget you knew me when I was a teenager. Talk about boner killers,” said Glorfindel, grinning. Then his grin faded. “Would you say I’m doing it again, right there?”

“Probably.” Ecthelion picked up Glorfindel’s hand and laced their fingers together, Glorfindel’s fingers bumping against the cool bulk of the class ring Ecthelion wore on his left hand. “What are you uncomfortable about?”

Glorfindel didn’t say anything for a moment, but swallowed once or twice. He shook his head as if trying to evade a pestering fly, and then said, low and swift, “Is it a problem that I’m a virgin? It’s okay if it is. I get it. I know you hardly need a, a…a project, and it’s probably kind of – tedious? Or, an effort, I guess. I mean, I know you have enough on your plate without having to deal with this too and – ”

“You’re not a project,” said Ecthelion quietly. “It’s not a problem. That would imply that your experience or lack thereof is something that needs to be solved.”

“But I know it’s weird,” said Glorfindel, with a crooked smile, his fingers now pressing painfully tight against Ecthelion’s ring, “that I’m a guy this old and I’ve never – I know it’s not what I’m supposed to be like.”

“Who says?” said Ecthelion fiercely. “You’re exactly what you’re supposed to be like. You’re you. And I don’t give a damn what you’ve done in bed, or not, we can figure it out as we go. I’m just sorry I assumed, because I don’t want you to feel pressure about this.”

“No,” said Glorfindel, and raised Ecthelion’s hand to his mouth. It was a strangely old fashioned gesture as he pressed his lips chastely to the back of Ecthelion’s hand, nearly kissing his ring, and Ecthelion took a breath, looking both stirred and uneasy at the picture it painted. “If there is anyone I know wouldn’t pressure me about this, it’s you.” He lowered Ecthelion’s hand, and his smile was shaky but true. “And honestly you’re the first person I’ve met I could actually see trying it with.”

They didn’t try anything.

Not that afternoon, anyway.

They lay in Glorfindel’s messy, sunlit room, lying sprawled on the unmade bed and talking until the light outside faded. When Ecthelion reached up to turn on the lamp, nothing happened.

“Oh, yeah,” said Glorfindel, stretching his arms above his head and making his shirt ride up over his stomach. “I’ve been meaning to replace that bulb.”

“For how long?”

“Oh…two weeks or so. I just use the light from my cell phone when it gets dark.”

“Glorfindel.” But Ecthelion just sighed as Glorfindel grinned at him and waved his cell phone in his face. He was less patient when he got up to try and adjust the intake on the ancient window unit that kept the room air conditioned and filled it with a pervasive rumble.

“What… How is this secured?”

“Oh, like a bungee cord? And a couple Kleenex boxes.” Glorfindel rolled over and rested his chin on his folded arms. “It works.”

“It doesn’t. Glorfindel, you are losing half the cold air out this gap here – is this _play dough_? What – How – ”

“Don’t bother trying to fix it,” said Glorfindel lazily. “It’s good enough.”

But Ecthelion, whose parents ran a highly successful plumbing company and who had followed his father around on maintenance jobs since he was six years old, already had his Swiss army knife out of his back pocket.

“I like a man who knows his way around a screwdriver,” said Glorfindel. “But Thel, you’ve got _ten_ days of leave, you really wanna spend it fixing my crap?”

“The crap needs fixing,” said Ecthelion, rummaging around the back of the AC. “How does this not bother you?”

“How does this get a more passionate response than my sexual inexperience?” said Glorfindel, but his tone was affectionate.

“A broken AC is an _actual_ problem.”

It took some time for Glorfindel to convince him to leave the air conditioner and drag him back into the bed. They lay in the tangled blankets together, faces almost touching, Ecthelion’s right hand running lightly over Glorfindel’s ribcage, their low voices almost completely obscured by the hum of the air conditioner, the only light from its fuzzy green LED display.

“So,” whispered Glorfindel, his own fingers finding their way under Ecthelion’s shirt and tracing the line of his stomach down to his waistband, “how do _you_ like it?”

“Like what?” said Ecthelion, twitching slightly and shifting forward against Glorfindel’s warm palm.

“Do you prefer a certain position?” It was too dark to make out Glorfindel’s expression clearly, but there was a smile in Glorfindel’s voice. “Top or bottom? Giving or receiving? Manual or – ”

“I drive an automatic transmission, actually,” said Ecthelion, and Glorfindel laughed and then his mouth was at Ecthelion’s throat, his head tucked up against Ecthelion’s shoulder.

“You asked me first,” he whispered, “Not my fault I couldn’t give informed answers. But you can, right? I’m intrigued now.”

“Oh,” said Ecthelion, and buried his hand in Glorfindel’s hair to mask his embarrassment. “I…I’ve never actually been on the receiving end. But I am not opposed to it. And I like… I like or– ” he cleared his throat. “Oral things – ”

“Blowjobs?” Glorfindel’s voice rumbled through Ecthelion’s body, and Ecthelion gave a full body shiver.

“Yes.”

“Okay.” Glorfindel sat up, and Ecthelion blinked into the dim light.

“Okay?”

“Okay.” Glorfindel bent down and began undoing Ecthelion’s fly. “Let’s see if we can pull this off without any black eyes. Oof!” He feigned a dodge as he pulled Ecthelion free of his pants. “Crikey, near miss there!”

“Glorfindel!”

“Is there a rule about no Crocodile Hunter impressions while giving head?” said Glorfindel, laughing as Ecthelion grabbed for him. “Listen, stop getting in the way of me trying to deflect awkwardness with humor, it’s all I’ve got! Shh, hold still.”

Ecthelion held still. But he didn’t close his eyes, even though the room was almost to dim to see anything, and he didn’t let his fingers slide from Glorfindel’s hair.


End file.
